Is Sarah Palin The Cure For The GOP?

Just to be clear for those who aren’t aware, I’m not fan of Sarah Palin anymore. I was once, having rooted for her to be picked as VP back in early 2008. I still think she has great ideas and can reach people, but the way in which she abandoned any run for the 2012 presidency is what turned me into somewhat of a Palin hater. That said, I’m going to try and be fair and leave those feelings out.

The article goes on to point at that she was not the reason Obama lost (she wasn’t: look at the state polls, and realize that McCain started trending downwards quickly after his “suspension of his campaign” stunt, after trending upwards and even putting deep Blue states, like Michigan, in play. He had the Bush 2004 states locked up), and that the writer, Charlotte Allen, is serious about Palin 2016.

Gabriel Malor, writing for the New York Daily News’ blog, pinpointed another reason: By focusing his campaign mostly on serious economic and political issues such as the national debt and tax incentives, Romney failed to take into account the fact that large segments of the electorate neither know nor care much about serious economic and political issues. What they – a group sometimes euphemistically called “uninformed voters” – do know and care about are the tugs on their emotions, fears, revulsions and heart strings provided by hours and hours of uninterrupted television watching .

Romney did a fantastic job in responding to Team Obama, and responding quickly. But, as I have argued, his campaign made the decision to be the adult in the room and avoid those deep smear attacks, going very negative, and really reaching for the heart strings. He ran as if he was applying for a job as a CEO of a super massive corporation.

Palin can more than keep up with the Democrats in appealing to voters’ emotions. Hardly anyone could be more blue collar than Palin, out on the fishing boat with her hunky blue-collar husband, Todd. Palin is “View”-ready, she’s “Ellen”-ready, she’s Kelly-and-Michael-ready.

A Palin “war against women”? Hah! Not only is she a woman, she’s got a single-mom daughter, Bristol, to help with the swelling single-mom demographic. On social issues, Palin, unlike Romney, has been absolutely consistent. And let’s remember that most Americans, whatever their view of choice, disapprove of most abortions.

Gay marriage? Palin opposes it. But she is also a strong advocate of states’ rights, and I’m betting she’d be fine with letting states and their voters grapple with the issue on their own. Remember that all of America didn’t swing toward approval of gay marriage on Nov. 6. Three reliably blue states and their voters did. If she were smart, Palin would recruit a member of her impressive gay fanboy base – yes, she has one – to help run her campaign. I nominate Kevin DuJan of the widely read gay conservative blog HillBuzz, a Palin stalwart since 2008.

There are other good points, such as her son Track being an Iraq war vet, she’s dynamic, young, and good looking, and, let’s face it, the lady is very tough, refusing to back down in the face of all the attacks and personal smears thrown her way and towards her family.

Sarah Palin is the new Ronald Reagan: charming and affable and unwilling to back down if she’s right. I can’t see what’s wrong with that.

She has the potential to be. She is a great, plain spoken politician, though I think she needs to reduce the homilies and increase the number of big words she uses, and delve deeper into subjects. She can talk to people as people, and tug on their passions. Policy wise, she is a bit squishy on illegal immigration and globull warming, but, strong on economic issues and energy. She needs to explain those in more detail.

Could she be the GOP’s hope in 2016? I have two problems with this. First, the aforementioned way she bailed on running in 2012, which I won’t delve into. Second, where was she during the 2012 cycle? No one can argue that her influence and support wasn’t a top 2 factor in the GOP’s historic House blowout of the Democrats. But, what did she do during this cycle? Where was her support of Romney and others? Why wasn’t she out on the trail stumping for Republicans? She putzed around for half a year before bowing out ungracefully.

If she wants to be the nominee, Palin needs to start soon. She needs to make sure her plans are in place, substantive and detailed. She needs to put a team together, and get out and about. She needs to jump in with both feet and join the circus, er, GOP debates. If she does that, her appeal, toughness, and ability to connect to people’s hearts will win out.